Air Force Fails To Kill Off The A-10 Warthog But Boy Did They Try

[Thor]

Says who? We had foreign nationals training in U.S. squadrons with F-16's at Luke back when I was stationed there. The F-35 is even more collaborative, and they have been training Israelis to fly and fight in the F-35's at Luke for 2 years now.

Says me. Training jets? Sure. Operational jets? No way, those clearances don't exist.

 

[Ggreen]

Says me. Training jets? Sure. Operational jets? No way, those clearances don't exist.

Beyond maybe a specialized weapons system, maybe some ew goodies there will be no difference. If there were a difference major enough between training and operational (which is none, all of our trainer F-16's had to maintain readiness and were maintained and equipped identically to deploying block 30/32's) then it would be a waste to train a pilot to fly in a trainer only to have to retrain them once they got to their first duty station. We share a lot of our ew, targeting, and weapons systems with certain allies to ensure air superiority is not hampered even when working with foreigners. All of our foreign instructors and students were rocking jhmcs helmets, which were pretty whiz bang at the time. They even trained with our old targeting pods. I'm sure they didn't get to go to the same weapons schools as our advanced pilots, but there are a lot of foreign pilots who were fully trained on what was, at the time, fully capable war fighting aircraft.

 

[Thor]

Dude, they don't even get to go to the same debriefings when flying together. Our own guys don't even get to sit in the same room. The F22 guys don't talk to the F35 guys and none of the 4th gen fighters get a clue. We have to design special exercises to try and get 4th and 5th gen integrated in a useful way.

Pilots get out of pilot training and have to go to the unit to get upgraded so they will be operational. Once they do there is no crossing the streams on what is in the cockpit. Like I said; those clearances don't exist.

 

[Spear Dane]

If the clearances don't exist who trained the HMRM Squadron that just went home to the UK, aircraft in hand?

 

[Thor]

Sigh...training vs operational...there is a difference. But never mind this is starting to sound too much like work anyway.

 

[Thor]

And now they are here to stay...

A-10 re-winging completed, will stay in the inventory into the 2030's

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...8.14.19&utm_term=Editorial - Early Bird Brief

 

[dudley0]

Awww, now they will lose their collector's value.

 

[Dead Duck]

The A-10 is "SOME PIG".

https://www.military.com/daily-news...gency-belly-landing-moody-air-force-base.html

 

[Thor]

Looks like you could jack it up, drop the gear and then figure out what went wrong. It could be back in rotation in a week. I wonder what the emergency was that he couldn't lower the gear...maybe that was it.

 

[rosejm]

This airframe is on the short list of military aircraft I'd climb into.

- A-10
- B-52
- C-130
- DC-3

They're just not designing 'em like they used to, the margins are too thin.
I want the ones designed by people that could make things. Those that said "A little bit extra, right there. Let's round those values UP, not down."

You know, back when we decided that we wanted to win no matter what it cost -- Build the right tool, we'll pay for it.



P.S. there are a couple helicopters that deserve honorable mentions, but since no one fully understands that dark magic we'll leave those for the ignorant and easily confused.

 

[Brad69]

I will gladly give up my seat on a C-130J on a flight from Kuwait to Afghanistan!

 

[Thor]

This airframe is on the short list of military aircraft I'd climb into.

- A-10
- B-52
- C-130
- DC-3

They're just not designing 'em like they used to, the margins are too thin.
I want the ones designed by people that could make things. Those that said "A little bit extra, right there. Let's round those values UP, not down."

You know, back when we decided that we wanted to win no matter what it cost -- Build the right tool, we'll pay for it.



P.S. there are a couple helicopters that deserve honorable mentions, but since no one fully understands that dark magic we'll leave those for the ignorant and easily confused.

Back when we had iron on the ramp and preflighted our airplanes! Not plastic on the ramp and preprogramed them. When men were men and women were damn glad...not now when men are chastised for toxic masculinity and what the heck is that over there.

 

[Thor]

I will gladly give up my seat on a C-130J on a flight from Kuwait to Afghanistan!

Nothing like cargo strap jump seats to make you appreciate actual seats designed for humans.

 

[Mgderf]

Nothing like cargo strap jump seats to make you appreciate actual seats designed for humans.

Boy you aren't just whistling Dixie!
I flew on a C-130 full of cargo from South Carolina to Goose Bay Canada, AND IT SUCKED!
From Goose Bay to Iceland we took a C-5. NOW we're talking CARGO!

 

[femurphy77]

Looks like you could jack it up, drop the gear and then figure out what went wrong. It could be back in rotation in a week. I wonder what the emergency was that he couldn't lower the gear...maybe that was it.

With the executioner salivating in the shadows this one is likely headed to Arizona. I guarantee that this bird could be saved though, I've seen it done on commercial aircraft that aren't nearly as tough as this. I' m guessing that the pilot brought it down low and slow and didn't so much land it as it just dropped to the tarmac when the wings finally stalled.

When I was at United they showed us a video of a 747 that had a nose gear failure. The doors opened but the gear didn't drop. The pilot managed to keep the nose up seemingly to the point that the plane stopped rolling before the nose gear doors touched the ground. IIRC the doors lost less than a foot of material before the plane came to a stop.

 

[dsol]

This airframe is on the short list of military aircraft I'd climb into.

- A-10
- B-52
- C-130
- DC-3

They're just not designing 'em like they used to, the margins are too thin.
I want the ones designed by people that could make things. Those that said "A little bit extra, right there. Let's round those values UP, not down."

You know, back when we decided that we wanted to win no matter what it cost -- Build the right tool, we'll pay for it.



P.S. there are a couple helicopters that deserve honorable mentions, but since no one fully understands that dark magic we'll leave those for the ignorant and easily confused.

When I was up in Plattsburgh years ago, I saw a DC-3 in a hangar with the wings removed for restoration. The damn thing looked like a bridge inside. Those ribs and spar were made of some substantially thick aluminum and the cross section of the wing was much thicker than I ever imagined. Not the most aerodynamic design for certain but built for strength and to last.

 

[avboiler11]

Its hard to kill anything Douglas...to say they were overbuilt downplays things.

 

[bkflyer]

"ignorant and easily confused"????????? I resemble that remark!!!!!!!
Helicopters are MUCH easier to fly than airplanes! Way too many moving parts but.......

 

[Dead Duck]

"ignorant and easily confused"????????? I resemble that remark!!!!!!!
Helicopters are MUCH easier to fly than airplanes! Way too many moving parts but.......

Oh... So you're a Marine.

 

[indykid]

One of the design beauties of the A-10 is that the main landing gear tires are still exposed in the fully retracted position and are the lowest part of the aircraft. There is a tail skid to make it a good old tail-dragger. So in this case there is a very good possibility that there is no damage to the airframe and a tail skid replacement, along with fixing why the gear didn't extend would be all that is needed to return this bird to service.

I do have a question that could negate the above, where is the canopy?